Category: Introduction to Microeconomics

INTRODUCTION TO MICROECONOMICS
Presented by Murray N. Rothbard in 1986 at New York Polytechnic University. Recorded by Hans-Hermann Hoppe.

1. Intro to Micro: Demand and Supply

Micro means dealing with the individual action. Macro deals with larger pictures of business cycles. Macro is screwed up. Micro is in pretty good shape. Study it first. Every individual has goals they wish to achieve.You use means to achieve goals. Economic theory is based on this deductive fact that the individual wants to arrive at goals – the means-ends objective.

INTRODUCTION TO MICROECONOMICS
Presented by Murray N. Rothbard in 1986 at New York Polytechnic University. Recorded by Hans-Hermann Hoppe.

2. Intro to Micro: Value

Why is it that things like bread and water which have high use values are cheap while on the other hand luxury items like diamonds are very expensive? This paradox was not solved until it became understood that people choose only a marginal unit – this loaf or this diamond. Value can be attached to a good only by individuals’ desires to use it directly in the present or in the present expectation of selling to such individuals in the future. It is subjective only.

INTRODUCTION TO MICROECONOMICS
Presented by Murray N. Rothbard in 1986 at New York Polytechnic University. Recorded by Hans-Hermann Hoppe.

3. The Determination of Prices

Price is determined by the equilibrium price and the equilibrium quantity. If your good is not selling, you lower the price. If your goods fly off the shelves you are selling too cheaply and you raise prices. Demand changes constantly, e.g. the shift to white wines away from dark hard liquor. Prices will fall when demand falls.

INTRODUCTION TO MICROECONOMICS
Presented by Murray N. Rothbard in 1986 at New York Polytechnic University. Recorded by Hans-Hermann Hoppe.

4. Intro to Micro: Price Controls in the Oil Industry

The disappearance of oil has been forecast every decade. Prices were overlooked. When the price is high it is more profitable to look for oil. Total reserves on the ground are higher than they were in 1890. Treating demand as a fixed quantity, the oil industry tried to control production and prices. Gas rationing was implemented. 55 MPH limit was legislated without economic or safety benefit. Safety belts increased fatalities of pedestrians. Natural gas experienced increasing shortages when it became artificially cheap. An insane price structure led to the shut down of older wells.

INTRODUCTION TO MICROECONOMICS
Presented by Murray N. Rothbard in 1986 at New York Polytechnic University. Recorded by Hans-Hermann Hoppe.

5. Intro to Micro: Minimum Price Controls

Thou shalt not sell a certain product or service below a certain price, e.g. wheat, cotton, corn, cheese, sugar. This will result in an artificial unsold permanent surplus, as it does in the American farm situation. Initially, resources are attracted into the field, but the artificially high price discourages buyer demand. This kind of interventionary tampering with market signals destroys the market tendency to adjustment and brings about losses and misallocation of resources in satisfying consumer wants. The principles of minimum price controls apply to minimum wage laws, which lead to involuntary mass unemployment.

INTRODUCTION TO MICROECONOMICS
Presented by Murray N. Rothbard in 1986 at New York Polytechnic University. Recorded by Hans-Hermann Hoppe.

6. Intro to Micro: Government Licensing of Industry and Minimum Wage

The peanut butter crunch was in 1980. Crop acreage and production was cut down by 45% by government price support, import quotas, and cartelizing of the industry. The price of peanuts more than tripled. Farm price supports also keep cheese prices above market levels. The minimum wage law imposes a wage above the laborer’s discounted marginal value product. The supply of labor exceeds the demand, and the unsold surplus of labor services means involuntary mass unemployment. Low paid workers are screwed by minimum wage laws.

INTRODUCTION TO MICROECONOMICS
Presented by Murray N. Rothbard in 1986 at New York Polytechnic University. Recorded by Hans-Hermann Hoppe.

7. Intro to Micro: Mid-Term Review and The Theory of the Firm

The objective of the corporate firm is to maximize profits and avoid losses – the same objective of the free market. But the costs are paid out before the income comes in. Stockholders will sell stock to shake up the managers. Government firms – agencies – do not have shareholders and there are no shares to be sold.

INTRODUCTION TO MICROECONOMICS
Presented by Murray N. Rothbard in 1986 at New York Polytechnic University. Recorded by Hans-Hermann Hoppe.

8. Intro to Micro: The Firm

Business men must make sure they can cover their costs by incoming revenue. The production function will yield a certain quantity of a product. The firm considers marginal costs and average costs to weigh where along the demand curve production is. Average revenues less average costs multiplied by quantity will reflect profits (or losses) for the firm. Every firm (not industry) will always be where the demand curve is elastic. Perfect and pure competition is where the demand curve for the firm is infinitely elastic – horizontal. Real life has falling demand curves. Everybody becomes a monopolist. The anti-trust movement was meant to purify competition. Monopoly had always meant government grants of privilege to certain industries. But now means falling demand curve – that’s everybody.

INTRODUCTION TO MICROECONOMICS
Presented by Murray N. Rothbard in 1986 at New York Polytechnic University. Recorded by Hans-Hermann Hoppe.

9. Intro to Micro: Monopoly and Competition

The words monopoly and competition have been changed. Competition meant rivalry or competing, either active or potential. Businesses do not like this. Monopoly meant a grant of privilege by the government. It now means a falling demand curve. Government creates crazy regulations and the market works to get around them. Cheaper consumer products are better. It’s difficult to sustain quotas – cartel agreements; everybody cheats. Cartels break up in the free market unless government intervenes and props them up.

INTRODUCTION TO MICROECONOMICS
Presented by Murray N. Rothbard in 1986 at New York Polytechnic University. Recorded by Hans-Hermann Hoppe.

10. Intro to Micro: Government Cartels

The only cartels that have lasted have been government cartels. There is no essential difference between a cartel and an ordinary corporation or partnership. Not even the De Beers cartel is all powerful. The South African government nationalizes all land upon which diamonds are discovered. The government only licenses De Beers to work the mines; they shoot others. New York cabs are cartels. Farm price supports are cartelized agriculture.

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Murray N. Rothbard Quotes

Pollution and overuse of resources stem directly from the failure of government to defend private property. If property rights were to be defended adequately, we would find that here, as in other areas of our economy and society, private enterprise and modern technology would come not as a curse to mankind but as its salvation.Murray Rothbardhttp://www.readrothbard.com/quotes… (next quote)